Safe Harvest expanding to Maharashtra, Gujarat.

Safe Harvest, a Bengaluru-based aggregator of non-persihable agri products, is expanding to Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad.

The 13-year-old firm, which procures and sells agri products that are grown following non-pesticidal management (NPM) practices, currently sells its products in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and the National Capital Region.

The agri start-up has entered into partnerships with 30 Farmer Producer Organisations in 12 States, with an aggregate of one lakh farmers growing various commodities.

“The FPOs in our network are under various stages of maturity. While some of them are at a nascent stage, some others do grading and cleaning and a few others take care of processing as well,” Rangu Rao, Chief Executive Officer of Safe Harvest, told BusinessLine.

“We test our products for over 120 pesticides to ensure each batch that reaches the consumer is pesticide-free,” he said.

The start-up procures staples such as atta, rice, cereals and pulses and spices. It sells its products to e-commerce players, modern retail chains and local retail outlets.

“We found farmers in remote areas using resource-intensive inputs. This practice is not giving them enough returns. Besides, it is impacting their health and the soil health,” he said. “On the other hand, there is a section of urban customers who don’t mind spending a premium to buy safe food. What we are doing is, linking the two sides,” he said.

“Some marginal farmers are aware of the benefits of pesticide- free farming, but have not been able to get the monetary returns they deserve for their better produce,” he pointed out. “Their products get clubbed with conventional ones as there is no separate category for pesticide-free produce,” he said.

The firm, which has so far invested about ₹34 crore, is expected to close the current financial year with a turnover of ₹43 crore as against ₹34 crore in the previous year. The aggregate sales volumes have gone up to about 7,000 tonnes from 5,000 tonnes during the period.

“We expect to break even when we reach a turnover of ₹80-90 crore. We are expecting to reach that figure in 2023-24. Around that same time we might go for institutional investments,” he said.

HBL